Breeding like rabbits! Thousands of bunnies that are 'eating away a Scottish island' will be culled
- Canna's estimated 16,000 rabbits will be 'drastically reduced'
- The rabbits' burrowing caused a major landslide on Scottish isle
- Rabbits have also been digging up a graveyard and islanders' gardens
- Without too many natural predators they have simply bred
- Conservationists hope that bird species will start recovering
- Animal charity warns cull plans are 'a vastly disproportionate response'
Thousands of rabbits on a tiny Scottish island are to be culled to stop them destroying it with their furious burrowing.
The final straw came after the rabbits' burrowing even caused a major landslide in Canna, closing a road for days, and needing specialist machinery and workmen to be sent from the mainland.
They have also been digging up human remains in a graveyard, islanders' gardens, bringing down walls and damaging important archaeological sides.
Canna's rabbit problem has boomed since rats were eradicated from the island
Now the isle's owners, the National Trust for Scotland, are going out to tender to 'drastically' reduce Canna's estimated 16,000 rabbits in what will be one of the biggest such culls.
The way the animals are killed will be up to the contractor but must be humane. It is likely to include live trapping and gassing.
The problem is so great on Canna that after a previous cull a couple of years ago the population was brought down to around 2,000.
But without too many natural predators they have simply bred.
There are now more than 1,000 rabbits for every person on the Inner Hebridean island which has a human population of just 12.
While Canna, 23 miles out in the Atlantic, may have problems attracting people, it has no such difficulty with rabbits.
The island is so plagued by the creatures that they recently caused a huge landslide which blocked the main track to Tarbert
The island is so plagued by the creatures that they recently caused a huge landslide which blocked the main track to Tarbert.
A digger had to be hired over from the mainland to clear about 100 tonne of soil and stones off the road so it could be used again.
'The rabbits are the worst I've known them in my 51 years here,' said islander Winnie Mackinnon.
'They are digging up the graveyard and there dragging out the bones. It is sad to see. They are everywhere - causing stone walls to collapse by burrowing under the foundations as well as damaging our archaeological sites.
'Something has to be done - they are basically eating away the island. A lot of rabbit pie is being eaten but you cannot keep up with them.
'The sea eagles feed on them but it does not stop the rabbits increasing. Something has to be done to control them and urgently.'
Canna's rabbit problem has boomed since rats were eradicated from the island.
The rabbit problem is so great on Canna that after a previous cull a couple of years ago the population was brought down to around 2,000
After spending £600,000 and bringing specialist trappers from over 11,000 miles away, the last rat was seen on the tiny Hebridean island of Canna seven years ago.
But now islanders are complaining that the rodent's disappearance has led to a new plague - rabbits.
Residents say that thousands of rabbits have invaded the island because there are no rats to keep their numbers down.
THE LONELY ISLE OF CANNA
The low-lying, crescent-shaped island lying just to the south of Skye had previously been famous for its more welcome settlers: Iron Age farmers, early Christian monks and the influential Gaelic folklorists John Lorne Campbell and Margaret Fay Shaw - who lived in the island's main iconic building Canna House.
Canna once supported a population of more than 400 people in 1821. Now it faces a fight for its survival.
Over the last two years 20 residents - five sevenths of the population - have left. There are no children on the island now.
The islands of Canna and Sanday were gifted to the NTS in 1981 by John Lorne Campbell.
'We recognise the rabbits are a major problem. Estimates suggest the rabbit population is now around the 16,000 mark,' admitted a spokeswoman for NTS.
'We recognise that the population has reached a particularly high level and are causing serious problems. That is why we have decided to act.
'We are about to go out to tender for a contractor to undertake control work on the island imminently, with the hope that much of this could be carried out before the end of the year.
'The overall plan is to get the population down to manageable and sustainable levels. The cull will reduce the population drastically. We cannot disclose the cost at this stage but it will amount to thousands of pounds.'
Conservationists hope that important breeding bird species on the island, including puffins, razorbills, European shags, Manx shearwater and northern fulmars, will start recovering.
Milder winters brought on by climate change are also thought to have led to perfect breeding conditions for rabbits - and especially with no rats predators around anymore.
John Brady, chief executive of Edinburgh-based charity One Kind said: 'We believe that culling wild animals because their behaviour is inconvenient or causing a nuisance is a vastly disproportionate response and we would urge the NTS to consider non-lethal and humane management techniques as an alternative to the proposed cull.'